The recent development of open access publication of research results has been accompanied by serious problems with predatory journals and predatory publishers who publish papers in open access journals without sufficient peer review and demand exorbitant publication fees.

If a researcher, without careful consideration, contributes to a predatory journal or publishes with a predatory publisher in order to increase his/her number of published papers, not only might he/she be exploited in terms of unjustifiably high publication fees, but also he/she might adversely lower the evaluation of his/her research performance — in some cases, even affecting the credibility of the research activities of Waseda University.

When submitting your work to an academic journal, please take great care with your choice of journal: you must fully understand the risk of publishing in predatory journals, and be sure to avoid doing so by referring to the checklists on websites such as those listed below.

Please share this information not only with your colleagues but also with the young researchers around you and the graduate students under your supervision.

In addition, as a measure for the avoidance of use of exploitive journals and publishers, from April 2019 onward, when publishing an original paper, researchers applying for Support for Academic Paper Publication are required to submit the Waseda journal checklist.

Is the journal hosted on one of INASP’s Journals Online platforms (for journals published in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Central America and Mongolia) or on African Journals Online (AJOL, for African journals)?

Is the journal indexed or a member of a prominent publisher association?

Does it display an ICV (Index Copernicus Value)?

（Index Copernicus Value(ICV) is a questionable journal metric, and is generally used exclusively by predatory journals. You will not find an ICV on the website of a legitimate journal.）

Does the journal have a clear policy regarding the recall of articles?

Does the journal guarantee publication or quick peer review?

２． Support for Academic Paper Publication measures to avoid the use of poor academic journals/publishers

From April 2019 onward, researchers applying for Support for Academic Paper Publication (for the publication of an original paper) are required to submit the Waseda journal checklist along with their application. However, if the journal in which you intend to publish/have published is listed in Scopus, CiNii, or Web of Science, the checklist is not required.